R. James Woolsey

Class of
2004
R. James Woolsey

R. James Woolsey

“Few Oklahomans in history have played such a key role in national security issues. Few have been privileged to enjoy such broad-ranging bi-partisan support and to have served in key roles under four Presidents of different political parties.”
David L. Boren, 1991

Biography

Oklahoma native R. James Woolsey is best known for his extensive public service to the international community. He graduated from Tulsa Central High School and was educated at Stanford University, as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, and at Yale Law School where he was managing editor of the Yale Law Journal. Mr. Woolsey served as an officer in the U.S. Army. He went on to become an advisor of the U.S. Delegation to the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) from 1969 to 1970, general counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services (1970-1973), and under secretary of the Navy (1977-1979). In 1973 he became a partner in a Washington, D.C. law firm and joined the firm Booz Allen Hamilton in 2002 as a vice president. He was appointed a delegate to the U.S. Soviet Strategic Arms Reduction talks and Nuclear and Space Arms Talks from 1983 to 1986, and served as the director of the Central Intelligence Agency from 1993 to 1995.

Fun fact

When Jim Woolsey was appointed as an advisor to a U.S. delegation in Vienna, he obtained a loan of artwork by native Oklahomans to hang in the ambassador’s residence. He also presented authentic Oklahoma Indian peace pipes to the 21 other delegates of the talks and explained to them the Native American traditions in regard to the peace pipe.

Oklahoma connections

Woolsey was born and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Hometown

Tulsa

Profession

Public Servant

Presenter

Born

1941

Died

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